Abstract
The natural cooling capacity and flow field in relatively small electronic equipment were studied in this study. A channel model was used as an experimental model of electronic equipment. The channel model has two vertical copper walls modeling the printed circuit boards and two transparent walls modeling the casing walls. The width between the copper walls is varied from 5mm to 15mm. The natural cooling capacity was obtained as functions of the wall clearance and heating power. The velocity distributions in the channel were quantitatively measured using a particle image velocimetry (PIV). Decreasing the channel width less than 10mm reduces air cooling capability of natural convection.
